Antedon mediterranea

The Antedon mediterranea is a feather star with 10 arms, very frail, that serve to catch the plankton. Red, yellow, orange, violet, white, brown and bicoloured, they can be 10 cm long and come from the division of the original 5 typical to other echinoderms such as starfish, to move and fix on gorgonias and substrata in strategic positions, up to 80 m of depth, where pass the currents rich of food, this Mediterranean crinoid uses about thirty articulated cirri, placed under the small central calyx, but can also swim for short distances beating the arms. The food, wrapped in mucus excreted by the ramifications, is carried to the mouth located over the calyx © Giuseppe Mazza